Brooklyn Heights ‘Save the View Now’ meeting draws large crowd

Hope to preserve view of Brooklyn Bridge; BBP, BHA respond

January 5, 2015 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Steven Guterman addresses the crowd at the first organizational meeting of a campaign to save the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Photo by Mary Frost

On Saturday, roughly 70 Brooklyn residents attended the first organizational meeting of a grassroots campaign to save an iconic view once visible from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade — the tower-to-tower arc of the Brooklyn Bridge.

That bridge view is now partially obstructed by the construction of the Pierhouse hotel and condo complex in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Brooklyn Heights resident Steven Guterman, leading the “Save the View Now” campaign, said the goal is to force the developer, Toll Brothers, to stick to an agreement struck in 2005, which negotiated a hotel height limit of 100 feet. This was the height of the Cold Storage Warehouse building which once stood in the same spot.

The unfinished hotel, however, already stands at least 130 feet tall and may rise to 144 feet, he said.

Guterman — a former Wall Streeter who now runs a molecular diagnostics startup — expanded on a phrase he borrowed from Brooklyn Heights preservationist Martin Schneider: “Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, the Empire State Development Corp. and Toll Brothers are stealing an American view from the millions that visit every year,” he said.

By meeting’s end, supporters had split into various Save the View Now working groups, including social and traditional media/PR, political outreach, local outreach and legal strategy.

In 2005, members of the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA), including noted preservationist Otis Pearsall, hashed out the height limit understanding with park planner Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and past leaders of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation (BBPC). Based on this agreement, BHA supported the plan.

BBPC President Regina Myer, however, told the BHA that current park leadership didn’t hear about this agreement until just this September.

Responding to a letter of complaint by BHA, Myer said that BBPC had made it clear during several meetings that “Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), would permit rooftop mechanical equipment to exceed the 100’ height limit provided that it fit the definition of a ‘Permitted Obstruction’ in the NYC Zoning Resolution.’”

She added that on December 21, 2011, “BHA explicitly acknowledged this fact, with no mention of any previous agreements made with the BHA.”

BHA responded, “Unfortunately, our Board did not find anything in that letter that addresses the error BBPC made in disregarding the Park’s commitment to this community for the buildings on Pier 1 to be no higher than 100 feet, including mechanicals–a commitment that was confirmed in writing and in the Final Environmental Impact Statement [FEIS].”

What went wrong?

Guterman said that measures had been put in place in the project plan and FEIS to “protect the views of the park and the view plane of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Harbor from the Promenade. This is what Brooklyn Bridge Park told us. What went wrong?”

He described a number of changes that led to height creep, including the addition of mechanicals atop the roof and FEMA’s raising of the floodplain following Hurricane Sandy.

To illustrate the floodplain change he said, “I’m five-foot seven,” Then he jumped onto a bench and declared, “I’m still five-foot seven!”

Guterman said the battle would take two prongs — “public outcry and political noise, and the legal route.” The first priority is to stop construction, he said, followed by restoration of the hotel height to 100 feet. The condo portion’s 55-foot limit need to be confirmed as well, he said.

While there are many issues affecting Brooklyn Heights right now, including overcrowding at P.S. 8, controversial development at Pier 6, noise and traffic, “We’ve got to stay focused like a laser beam on this issue,” he said.

Many issues still need clarification, Guterman said. There are questions about how to measure the height of the structures, how high the condo portion will eventually rise, whether Toll Brothers is bound by the FEIS, and whether the Pierhouse falls outside of the Special Scenic View District.

“We need to get lawyers who know these answers,” Guterman said.

Some attendees expressed unhappiness with a perceived lack of follow-through by the Brooklyn Heights Association.

“I met BHA President Alexandra Bowie yesterday,” Guterman said. “She feels it’s too late to do anything because of the fact they have been silent for so long.” With this, several people in the audience booed.

“This is not a universal sense within the organization,” he added.

Alexandra Bowie, not present at the meeting, later emailed the Eagle to clarify that Guterman had misquoted her. “What I told Steve is that the BHA is not a good potential plaintiff, not that we felt it was too late to act,” Bowie wrote.

A number of BHA members, in attendance as private individuals, refuted the implication that the organization was not involved in the issue.

Susan Rifkin, a member of BHA’s Brooklyn Bridge Park committee, said that BHA had written two letters to BBPC, “and it’s safe to say we are exploring any and all options.”

Judy Stanton, executive director of BHA, said the organization had hired a surveyor and consulted an attorney. There is “vigorous discussion at the board level,” she said.

Update: On Tuesday, BHA sent a statement to its members in support of Save the View Now and urged residents to sign the petition.

The statement reads in part, “Save the View Now promises, in Steve’s words, a ‘laser-like focus’ on the singular goal of saving the views of the Brooklyn Bridge, a goal we whole-heartedly support.” (Their full statement follows below this article.)

The meeting took place at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue on Remsen Street. A synagogue employee opened the sanctuary to the crowd after attendees overflowed the smaller conference room originally set aside for the event.

A statement from BBP follows.

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Statement from Brooklyn Bridge Park: Nothing New in Pierhouse Design

“It has been suggested that the Pierhouse development project at Brooklyn Bridge Park, which occupies the former site of the dilapidated Cold Storage Warehouses, contravenes the Brooklyn Heights “Special Scenic View District” (SV1) protected in the New York City Zoning Resolution. Compliance with SV1 has always been a requirement of the project, and a commitment BBP takes very seriously. To be clear, the northern portion of the project does not lie within the protected Special Scenic View District, and the project as a whole complies with all SV1 restrictions and maintains this protected viewshed.

There also seems to be confusion over whether the building being constructed is the same as that presented to the community. The Pierhouse project underwent a robust and transparent public design review process involving a series of public meetings dating back to 2011. At all of the meetings held with our Community Advisory Council (CAC) – the body through which BBP reports to the community regarding its projects – it was made clear that rooftop mechanical equipment is permitted to exceed the 100’ height limit (at the northern section) provided that it fit the definition of a “Permitted Obstruction” in the NYC Zoning Resolution. The Pierhouse project is no higher than that presented to the community in 2013. The building topped out several weeks ago, and any suggestions that it will go higher are totally inaccurate.

As to any agreement being codified by the 2005 FEIS, the content of the response to comment 224 of 446 comments in this document was not memorialized in the BBP General Project Plan, and the Pier 1 hotel was designed accordingly.”

Belinda Cape

VP, Strategic Partnerships, BBP

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Statement from the Brooklyn Heights Association

A decade ago, the BHA lobbied on behalf of our community to protect the iconic views of the Brooklyn Bridge by limiting the height of development in the park. In recent months, we have watched in stunned disbelief as construction of the Pierhouse has obscured those views.

Two weeks ago, Brooklyn Heights resident Steve Guterman started an on-line campaign: Save the View Now. As a new, independent, grass-roots organization, Save the View Now is ready to take a fresh stand. Save the View Now promises, in Steve’s words, a “laser-like focus” on the singular goal of saving the views of the Brooklyn Bridge, a goal we whole-heartedly support. The BHA encourages our members to sign his petition, available here.

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and brooklyneagle.com cover Brooklyn 24/7 online and five days a week in print with the motto, “All Brooklyn All the Time.” With a history dating back to 1841, the Eagle is New York City’s only daily devoted exclusively to Brooklyn.